Randomness + Procrastination --> Korean Hip Hop Culture Facebook Phenomena

I currently have the book "The Rhetoric of Soft Power" sitting on my lap, since I was about to begin transcribing the notes I took in it with sticky notes last night to my Evernote files. However, I am unsurprisingly on Facebook and news about the release of a new album by one of my favorite Korean hip hop artists, Beenzino, has been flooding my news feed. I am definitely frustrated waiting for someone to illegally upload it so I can listen to it (since, as a non-citizen, I can't buy Korean mp3s online legally and I'd have to have a friend buy the physical CD for me from Korea which would take at least a month...so annoying). But rather than complain more, I'm just going to productively procrastinate and get some free-flow writing out there, by discussing a really interesting phenomenon in the online Korean hip hop scene.

The album cover which has been staring at me teasingly for the past week from my Facebook News Feed.  

If I read one more comment/status saying "Are you guys listening to 2 4 : 2 6 right now??" I'm gonna punch someone. 

Anyways....... ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ (<-- 'hehehe' in Korean)

The main story:

Koreans (at least those who have been in Korea all their life, i.e. excluding international students) generally began adopting Facebook only last summer. Before, they had used a Korean SNS website called Cyworld. When Korean hip hop artists first began using Facebook, even though they are semi-famous, they added people to their personal accounts -- my suspicion is because they didn't know about the Fan Page feature. This resulted in many of them getting thousands of friends who are mainly just fans. (More recently, these artists have made traditional Fan Pages, but they still add/keep friends on their personal pages, too.) This has encouraged very close fan-artist relations in the Korean hip hop scene, and fans are very eager to support their favorite artists.

In particular, screen capture technology combined with tagging technology has resulted in a new fan phenomenon. Before an album comes out, fans will post the album cover as a picture on their page, and tag the artist in the photo, so the artist is aware that the fan is supporting them. Then, when the album has come out, fans will take screen captures of their smart phones, showing them in the middle of listening to the song. They then tag the artist in the screen capture. Here is what it ends up looking like on my News Feed:

Comments like this don't make me any less excited and anxious to listen to it!!!! But is it exaggeration to impress the artist? Who knows.... It's Beenzino though, bound to be dope! 

It's also not just that a few fans do this.... a lot of fans do it. To show, I went to Beenzino's personal page, and looked at the photos of him tagged. This is what I found....

Yup. That's right. 45 tags of people supporting his new album. And I'm sure there are more to come. It's only been out for a few hours as of now.

The interesting point to all of this is that fans don't merely want to share their favorite artists to their friends, but they also want to prove their fandom and dedication by showing the artists exactly what they are doing to promote them. In addition to fans  loyally spending money on going to concerts every weekend (which they do -- I saw it happen) and buying albums, they must now also VISIBLY show this support. Conspicuous consumption to be sure, but not only conspicuous consumption to prove their identity or status to their peers, but to the  people creating the products to be consumed as well.

Traditionally, conspicuous consumption of name brands, for example, is to show status mainly to peers. "I wear Chanel and thus I am more sophisticated and wealthy to you." Of course, this is a big world, and the people at Chanel have no way of knowing that You wore their products. All they see is revenue.

However, the relative smallness of the Korean hip hop community and the adoption of Facebook has allowed for conspicuous consumption which serves to solidify social relations between artist and fan. It is no longer merely enough to enjoy the music. To be a TRUE fan, you must wear your support on your sleeve, both for your peers and the artists themselves.


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So yeah. This is a really interesting topic to me, because it personally relates to my life. I, too, have certainly taken advantage of the opportunity to tag my favorite artists in my posts. For me, it is mainly because I want them to know that I appreciate the music they make. But it may be different for Koreans who have more peers who like Korean hip hop, and more strict Confucian mores guiding them. I'm also interested in learning what the artists think of this, and if it even makes a difference in their opinion of their fans? Also, does the nature of hip hop encourage a greater or particular intensity of fandom? 


Gosh..... I kind of want to make this into my thesis topic now since it's not so overwhelming compared to my other one. Hmmm.... we will see. ^^ 


Good studying to everyone..... and wish me luck that the album will come out on Youtube soon!!! hehehe I will post it for you to enjoy! 


Lyndsey~~